Workflow

New Version of Server-Based Solution Creates PDF/A Files for Archiving in One Automated Step BURLINGTON, ON, Jul 14, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Adlib Software, a leader in advanced server-based document conversion, recognition and publishing, announced Adlib ExpressRecognition Server 4.1, a standalone optical character recognition (OCR) and imaging technology that now supports the

E' possibile eseguire un workflow passando al metodo CreateWorkflow un tipo di flusso: 1: WorkflowInstance instance = runtime.CreateWorkflow(typeof(Workflow1));oppure facendo uso di tag basati su XAML. Prima di spiegare il come, faccio un piccolo passo indietro per dire che Workflow Foundation ci permette di creare un flusso di lavoro essenzialmente in tre modi: -solo codice, ne scaturisce ch

Summary Mark Dunn comes back to discuss how the rules engine works as part of WF (Workflow Foundation). You may be surprised by the results. Bio Mark has over 20 years of experience in the disciplines of software engineering, database administration, and project management. Software that Mark developed for the radio industry is still in use today. He was a lead developer on the team that created

E' possibile creare workflow sequenziali costituiti da custom activity che mettono il flusso di lavoro in attesa ( long running activities): In questo modo possiamo consentire all'utente di lavorare su una determinata maschera collegata ad un certo flusso per il tempo a lui necessario e solo  in seguito effettuare l'avanzamento al successivo activity. Durante il periodo di attesa, l

Da qualche mese sto lavorando con una tecnologia che trovo estremamente interessante: Windows Workflow Foundation e devo dire che mi sta affascinando non poco. Come qualsiasi post che si rispetti è fondamentale fare una piccola introduzione sui concetti di base. Per workflow si intende un insieme di step in cui si definiscono una serie di regole per descrivere un modello di processo.

In the first two parts of this series I've given a brief introduction to the integration of Windows Workflow into Metastorm BPM 7.6. For this final part I'll be discussing what interests me, being able to execute workflows authored in Visual Studio from Metastorm BPM. The first question was, is it even possible? There is no UI for publishing workflows to the Metastorm database, other than those a

In part 1 I discussed the new Windows Workflow features in Metastorm BPM 7.6. I'll now move onto the database tables used by WF workflows in Metastorm. First we have two tables that contain process metadata. eMSWorkflow is pretty simple, it contains one entry for each workflow published to the database. There is a column for the name of the workflow and a GUID column. The name is the name that wil

This screencast demonstrates a distributed workflow. It takes two personas, creating a project in GitHub and pushing to it in the first persona, then cloning that project in the second. The second sets up a public, read-only HTTP repository on his own server. The first then fetches from that, merges changes and pushes back to GitHub. It also demonstrates an instance in which the Author and Committ

This episode demonstrates how to setup your .gitignore file, how to use and interpret git status output, how to add and remove files from your index, how to commit and what git does in the object database during these operations.Read more about this video…Want to control this feed contents? Sign up here and create your own feed!Want more on these topics?Browse the archive of posts filed und

I was aware that it was possible to add code to a XOML workflow but I hadn't actually seen any examples of it, until I started looking into the Metastorm WF integration. I'm not sure it's something I'd like to do, it's pretty ugly and I like the idea of producing a workflow definition in a purely declarative manner. That way you're forced to put real code in their own activities which I think help

The new version of Metastorm BPM, 7.6, has several new features (and I may do a full review at some point), but the one that interests me the most is the integration with Windows Workflow. This has been a fairly long time in development, a screenshot appeared on the web about 18 months ago. The first WF integration appeared in 7.5, which allowed BPM functionality to be called from WF workflows. Th

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Till siebel 7.5 the only method know to invoke workflows were Runtime Events in start step of workflowBusiness ServiceBusiness Component ScriptWorkflow PoliciesBut from Siebel 7.7 ownwards there is one more method by which we can invoke a workflow. That way is Siebel business Component user property. You can 'Named Methodn' user property in a BC which can invoke a workflow where n is increment to

Previously I came up with a reasonable approach to executing a child XOML workflow asynchronously but what I was really after was executing the workflow synchronously. I eventually realised that the solution to this problem was to fire up another WorkflowRuntime and execute the workflow using that. I now have a WorkflowExecutor class as below.using System;using System.IO;using System.Text;using System.Threading;using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler;using System.Workflow.Runtime;using System.Xml;namespace WFBuild.Activities{ /// <summary> /// Executes a workflow synchronously /// </summary> public class WorkflowExecutor { private AutoResetEvent waitHandle; private Guid wfGuid; private Exception ex; public void Execute(string fileName) { WorkflowR

Digital Tutors Mental ray in Maya: Rendering WorkflowDVD | 3 hrs. 23 min “, Add stunning detail and visual depth to your work and easily learn the fundamentals of rendering with mental ray in Maya. Contains over 3 hours of project-based training. Perfect for beginner and intermediate users. Popular highlights include:Global IlluminationEmitting GI Photons from LightsPhoton Falloff, Intensity, and CountFinal GatherMixing FG/GI EffectsImage-based lighting (HDR)Creating HDR imagesCausticsSubsurface Scattering (skin)MR_fast_skin shaderAmbient OcclusionLight BakingHDR Light BakingDielectricDGSParticipating MediaPhenomenaPassesOverview of mental ray materials ”, Download-mrmw.r00-mrmw.r01-mrmw.r02-mrmw.r03-mrmw.r04-mrmw.r05-mrmw.r06-mrmw.r07-mrmw.r08-mrmw.r09-mrmw.r10-mrmw.r11-m

Getting a list of the services loaded into the workflow runtime is pretty simple. Here's some code to do it.using System;using System.Collections.ObjectModel;using System.Workflow.Runtime;namespace GetAllServices{ class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { WorkflowRuntime runtime = new WorkflowRuntime(); runtime.StartRuntime(); ReadOnlyCollection<object> services = runtime.GetAllServices(typeof(object)); for (int i = 0; i < services.Count; i++) { Console.WriteLine(services[i].ToString()); } Console.ReadLine(); } }}If you try to get a service from inside an activity using the ActivityExecutionContext.GetService method, the available services will be different. Looking in Reflector, you'll see there are several services th

The built-in InvokeWorkflow activity requires a compiled workflow type which isn't too useful if you're trying to execute a XOML-based workflow. Initially I thought I could compile the XOML workflow and then use the InvokeWorkflow activity. The problem with this approach is that the InvokeWorkflow's TargetWorkflow property can't be set at run-time. The solution is pretty straightforward, compile the workflow then use the IStartWorkflow service to start the workflow (which is what InvokeWorkflow does internally). But there are still a couple of issues with this. First, there is no way to pass parameters to a XOML workflow, since there is no way to add top-level properties. You could workaround this by sub-classing the SequentialWorkflowActivity and adding properties for the parameters you

The first Full-Field Direct Digital Mammography system from Siemens has been unveiled. The MAMMOMAT Inspiration has been developed from the input and inspiration of healthcare professionals to combine speed, superior image quality and examination comfort. The new system is fresh in design to meet the needs of the patient, the user and clinician. New compression technologies, paddle design and

QuickTest Professional is a software testing tool that provides you an automated solution for performing functionality testing. QuickTest Professional enables you to automate manual test cases. This automation of test cases results in increased productivity of the testing team and increased reusability of tests. The workflow for QuickTest Professional represents the complete lifecycle of

If you are an employer in NY, MA or CT looking for someone to hire, I have a highly endorsed candidate for you. Recent Work History: Welch Allyn Inc 1989-1998 - Positions: Procurement Analyst, Sr. Procurement Analyst, Procurement Manager for Data Collections Division (now Hand Held Products). Departmental budgeting, team management, supplier sourcing, cost reduction, inventory turns, lead time reduction, Sub contractor selection and management, new product support, MRP PPC Production... Continued at Todd Sullivan's ValuePlays

Photo buffs who are fond of open source software would do well to look at blueMarine. Right now, the free, cross-platform application's strength is image management, but it is on its way to becoming a complete workflow tool. Its cataloging features are robust, its architecture is extensible, and it takes some intriguing new approaches. Java consultant Fabrizio Giudici started the project in 2003, but it languished as he grew frustrated with the limitations of the Swing toolkit. In 2006, he rebuilt the code using the newly released NetBeans platform, and hasn't looked back since.

Photo buffs who are fond of open source software would do well to look at blueMarine. Right now, the free, cross-platform application's strength is image management, but it is on its way to becoming a complete workflow tool. Its cataloging features are robust, its architecture is extensible, and it takes some intriguing new approaches. Java consultant Fabrizio Giudici started the project in 2003, but it languished as he grew frustrated with the limitations of the Swing toolkit. In 2006, he rebuilt the code using the newly released NetBeans platform, and hasn't looked back since.

Here is the QM workflow for material setup from beginning (creation of new material number) to end (generate a COA for a shipment leaving the plant). This does not include Quality Notifications. SAP QM Configuration Most materials require Scenario One. Some materials also require Scenario Two. These two Scenarios together are the Business Process Flow from the initial material creation to the final shipment of finished product with associated QM documentation for the customer. Scenario One - Used for materials which require an inspection. This generally applies to in-process and finished goods materials. In some cases it applies to raw materials. The steps for the most part are listed in sequential order, although some parts may be optional for certain cases. 1.) MM02 - Material Master,

Dictation has been a major way of producing documents for many professionals that hate to type or write. Perhaps because they could spend that painstakingly long typing time(Like me) on valuable tasks like taking care of patients, if the person is a doctor. Or brain storming with oneself.About one and half a decade ago, fresh out of campus, I was involved in producing a system that allowed to dictating people to dial into the hospital and grab dictations and dictate away. The hospitals were in USA and the translators were in India and Philippines. (Yes out sourcing is not that new). We did not have VoIP to use then and we had dedicated telecom lines. We also developed a Very high voice/data compression method and effectively used the leased lines. But just as the company was entering into

One problem with XOML only workflows (i.e no code-behind) is the inability to define properties in your top-level workflow to store values that will be used throughout the lifecycle of the workflow, since you haven't got a class in which to define them. Well that's what I thought anyway until I had the idea of creating a custom activity to store these variables. It's all very simple, add the activity to your workflow and set the Value property to whatever you want, then bind it to any other activities that need access to the value. Here's the code public class VariableActivity: Activity { private string value; [Description("The value of the variable")] public string Value { get { return value; } set { this.value = value; } } }

Every time a change document is written, a workflow event for the change document object is triggered. This can be used to chain unconditionally an action from a transaction. The most interesting... This abap blog is all about REPORTS,BDC,SCRIPTS,ALE,IDOC'S,EDI,WORK FLOW,INTERVIEW QUESITONS,FAQ'S every thing needed for a abaper.

There are two faces of workflow in R/3. One is the business oriented workflow design as it is taught in universities. This is implemented by the SAP Business Workflow. However, the workflow is also a... This abap blog is all about REPORTS,BDC,SCRIPTS,ALE,IDOC'S,EDI,WORK FLOW,INTERVIEW QUESITONS,FAQ'S every thing needed for a abaper.

After reading a post about using Windows Workflow to build an SMTP server, I started thinking of something I could use WF for outside the world of business processes. For a long while I've also been planning on automating my build processes for various projects I've got on the go. I then realised I could combine the two and develop an automated build system with WF. At this point, if you have any experience of automated builds, you're probably thinking "Why the hell don't you use NAnt or MSBuild like any normal person?", which is a fair point. But using WF has a few advantages. First, as far as I'm aware NAnt and MSBuild don't provide a graphical designer for their build projects (I'm quite happy to be proved wrong on this point) whereas I was able to knock together a designer based on t

I needed to be able to execute a XOML workflow from the command line so I wrote this little app that takes a XOML file as an argument and executes it. This is part of something that should become a nice example of using WF to build applications for non-programmers, i.e. using activities as building blocks like Lego. More on that to follow, perhaps.using System;using System.IO;using System.Threading;using System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler;using System.Workflow.Runtime;using System.Xml;namespace WFBuild{ class Program { private static AutoResetEvent waitHandle; static void Main(string[] args) { try { Console.WriteLine("WFBuild"); if (args.Length != 1) { Console.WriteLine("Usage"); Console.WriteLine("WFBuild <XOML file to ex

In MOSS 2007 Approval workflow is available in out of the box itself. Just we need to configure only few steps then we are ready with the approval process.If the approval workflow is configured the document will be visible only to the contributor and to the approver.Steps to Configure Content approval workflowOpen the Document LibraryClick Settings -> Document Library SettingsIn Document Library Settings under Permissions and Management Click Workflow SettingsDocument Library Settings -> [Permission and Management] Workflow ManagementsIn MOSS 2007 it has some prebuilt workflow templates for the following workflowsApproval Collect Feedback Collect Signatures Disposition Approval Three StateNow Select the Approval Workflow and give the unique name for the workflow instance.Select the Existin

Transforming RAW Data to Uncompromising Image QualityCOPENHAGEN, Denmark — Dec. 19, 2007 — Phase One today announced the availability of Capture One 4, the next generation of the world's first RAW workflow software. Built on a new architecture, the successor to Phase One's entry-level Capture One LE offers photographers - pros and enthusiasts alike - a RAW workflow solution for superior image quality.A newly designed user interface offers high fidelity color and detail reproduction, plus new timesaving workflow features. Capture One 4 supports medium-format digital backs and a wide range of DSLR cameras."Our recent survey of professional photographers shows that pros have fully adopted digital and RAW format, with 89 percent of total images now being captured digitally and over 50 percent of them in RAW format," said Ed Lee, Director at InfoTrends."Capture One excels at RAW workflow," said Jan H. Christiansen, marketing director for Phase One. "Today, it is no les

Microsoft Webcast : Advanced SharePoint Document Workflow with Visual Studio 2008Time : Friday, December 14, 2007 1:30 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)Join Robert Shelton for a 90 minute demonstration (i.e., Very few if any PowerPoint slides) on building Document Workflows for SharePoint (MOSS 2007) with Visual Studio. For this demonstration, Robert will be using the soon to be released Visual Studio 2008 (showing new features for Workflow Developers), however all of the demonstrations could also be accomplished using Visual Studio 2005 with Workflow Extensions.What you will learn:• New features for SharePoint Workflow Developers in Visual Studio 2008• New SharePoint API’s for SharePoint workflow• How to debug SharePoint Workflow’s using the Visual Workflow Designer• The new s

eBOOK Details Publisher Sybex Release Date March 6, 2007 ISBN 0470100869 eBOOK Description Workflow is critical for digital photographers. Whether you're new to Photoshop Elements or an experienced image editor, this professional book will show you how to create consistent high-quality images by establishing a logical sequence of essential tasks. From sorting images and RAW conversion to

If you've tried to create tasks in workflows hosted in Sharepoint using the CreateTask activity you may have come across this error in the Sharepoint logs. System.NotSupportedException: Specified method is not supported.     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowTask.SetWorkflowData(SPListItem task, Hashtable newValues, Boolean ignoreReadOnly)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOETaskService.UpdateTaskInternal(Guid taskId, SPWorkflowTaskProperties properties, Boolean fSetWorkflowFinalize, Boolean fCreating, HybridDictionary specialPermissions)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOETaskService.CreateTaskWithContentTypeInternal(Guid taskId, SPWorkflowTaskProperties properties, Boolean useDefaultContentType, SPContentTypeId ctid, HybridDictionary specialPermissions)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOETaskService....  Although saying that, my own searches on the Internet didn't

SAP Workflow FAQsWhat differences are there between a work item and a notification mail?a) The work item cannot be used to notify several users.Mails can be routed to several users, just like work items. When a mail is sent, and one recipient reads and deletes the mail, all other recipients will still have access to their own copy in their own inbox. However, when a work item is processed by one of the recipients it will automatically disappear from all the other inboxes. So you can see that a work item is unsuitable for notifying several users.It is also worth noting that a mail can be forwarded in many different ways (fax, internet...) whereas the work item cannot.Type rest of the post hereb) The work item holds up the workflowWhen the workflow sends a mail (usually as a background step) it continues with the process immediately after transmitting the mail. When a work item is generated, the workflow will not continue until the work item has been processed. This slows down the proce

If you're hosting the Windows Workflow designer control in your own application (this shows you how to host the control) and you want to use the Sharepoint activities, these are the files you'll need (these are for Sharepoint Services, I think there are more activities for MOSS 2007). Microsoft.SharePoint.dll Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.dll microsoft.sharepoint.WorkflowActions.dll microsoft.sharepoint.WorkflowActions.intl.dll microsoft.SharePoint.workflowactions.intl.resources.dll I'm not sure of the rules regarding redistribution of these files since I'm only using it for my own personal use. If you're having trouble getting any of these files out of the GAC then read this post which explains how to get them out.

I have taken thousands of pictures with the two digital cameras I have owned in the past 5 years. I purchased my first camera in 2002 and quickly began learning how best to take pictures. The camera was a Canon G2 and I learned about and began using the RAW file format when taking pictures. I then acquired the Canon S3 IS but it unfortunately didn’t have a RAW file format, so I quickly learned to make do with taking pictures in the JPEG format.Although my file format has changed I still like to tweak my pictures. I do this because I am not the greatest of photographers so I like to make some quick edits to my pictures. In this post I will provide an overview of the workflow I use to make my pictures ready for printing.Camera SettingsI have my camera setup up differently than most people. You don’t have to setup your camera the same way as mine to use the workflow, but I thought I’d mention this here because it will make your pictures look different.Set the white balance.I always

Photoshop workspace and workflow habits can really make a difference in the way a photo turns out after post-processing. If you’re not careful, you can actually do more harm than good by working with a photo in software such as Photoshop. Your post-production habits will also have an effect on your near and distant future ability to use your photos in various ways, so it’s important to plan ahead and save yourself some trouble. WORKSPACE SETUP It’s important to get your ducks in a row before you start your photo editing process. These are all things that can be setup once and left alone, so they’re not a huge inconvenience. Monitor Profiling Probably the most important thing you can do for your workspace. If your colors are off in your monitor, your colors will be off in your photos. Color Space Use the biggest color space possible while shooting and while post-processing, but be aware of any limitations caused by your chosen color space. Bit Depth Use the

Stage 0: Capture the Image First, ensure good exposure in your images. There’s a myth that Photoshop can fix any type of problem in digital images. There are definitely many options for fixing problem images in Photoshop, but it’s always best to start with a good image. Second, capture a sharp, straight image. Use sharp lenses and limit the use of camera filters or other light modifying tricks.

Publisher Packt PublishingAuthor(s) K, Scott AllenISBN 1904811213Release Date 21 December 2006 A fast-paced and practical developer’s road map to working with Windows WF, from compilation to the base activity library to runtime services. Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a technology for defining, executing, and managing workflows. It is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 and will be available natively in the Windows Vista operating system. Windows Workflow Foundation might be the most significant piece of middleware to arrive on the Windows platform since COM+ and the Distributed Transaction Coordinator. The difference is, not every application needs a distributed transaction, but nearly every application does have a workflow encoded inside it. In this book, K Scott Allen, author of renowned .NET articles at www.odetocode.com, provides you with all the information needed to develop successful products with Windows Workflow. From the basics of how Windows Workflow can solve the dif

There are two groups of Windows Workflow service that you'll come across. The first group are the well-known services that are used by the runtime itself (well-known because they are well-known to the runtime not necessarily to the developer using the runtime...). These are things like the persistence service, tracking service, data exchange service etc. You can use these services out of the box or you can inherit from them and modify them as required. Fortunately a lot of the methods in these services are virtual so you can quite easily hook in new functionality (and quite possibly get yourself in a whole heap of trouble as well). The second group of services are services that can be used by your own custom activities. At this point it's worth considering when using your own service makes sense. For instance I downloaded an email sender activity that required me to configure the SMTP host address and port as properties on the activity. Since i

Increase productionClearing backlogDistribution of information and workEvery user gets his work list automatically from the system Accelerating the processesYou will get cash discount more oftenBetter/quicker reaction to errorsCustomers are more satisfiedProcesses are more quickly finishedBetter return on information Workflow is Not ..!!!!(1)Simply document administration and imaging; although Workflow uses both(2)Standard E-mail and groupware – although Workflow uses these(3)Data distribution across multiple systems: EDI / ALE is used for this purpose(4)Screen sequence management within a transaction .(5)Management of temporary data, management of “one time” processes (6)Repetitive work of a single type, e. g. goods movements. A tool to fill functionality gaps!Advantages of Using Workflow Transparent business processes (i)For modeling and defining(ii)Rules, templates(iii)Organizational principlesAt runtime(i)Current status(ii)of a certain business object(iii)t

Problems of Office & administration processLong lead times due to high transport and wait timesLack of transparency of processes connected to high work distributionHistorically grown task assignmentsInefficient communications between process participantsData entered more than onceGoalReorganize your business processGoals of reorganizing Business Process(i)Increase transparency of procedures used(ii)Increase employees responsibility(iii)Focus on the interest of the customer(iv)Better quality managementWhy SAP Business Workflow?(i)Is tailored to customer needs and developments(ii)Is a tool for the automization of business processes(iii)Is not tied to any particular application(iv)Operates uniformly across applications(v)Coordinates all participating tasks(vi)Provides users with active supportWhy SAP Business Workflow?(1)You can use the SAP Business Workflow system to support your enterprise processes in R/3(2)The SAP Business Workflow system is able to combine steps from different appli

Today I was creating a workflow in Visual Studio so I could repackage it with content types and lists, rather than using SharePoint Designer where the workflow has to be applied to a specific list.Whenever I tried to create a new SharePoint Sequential Workflow Library project, I got the error: "The project type is not supported by this installation". Turns out I had a pre-release version of the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .Net Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation) - beta 1.2 to be precise. After uninstalling and reinstalling the release version, available here, I could create the workflow project.I'm currently following Nick Swan's excellent blog postings about how to create and deploy SharePoint workflows in Visual Studio: SharePoint 2007 Workflow with Visual Studio 2005 + InfoPath 2007 (RTM VERSION!) and Deploying our SharePoint 2007 Workflow with Visual Studio 2005 + InfoPath 2007 (RTM VERSION!) .

(1) Miscellaneous (i)VIEW_MAINTENANCE_CALL Call of the complete maintenance dialog- just like SM30(ii)ABAP_DOCU_DOWNLOAD Download ABAP documentation in HTML format.(iii)AUTHORITY_CHECK_TCODE checks whether a user has authorisation to a transaction.(iv)STATUS_TEXT_EDIT This gets the statuses of the document like Work Orders.(v)WFMC_MESSAGE_SINGLE Pass the NAST as the parameter and get the print.(vi)FIEB_PASSWORD_ENCRYPT (vi)FIEB_PASSWORD_DECRYPT (2)Text Processing (i)READ_TEXT Read long text of an object into an internal table(ii)SAVE_TEXT Create or change long text for an object(iii)DELETE_TEXT Delete long text of an object(iv)EDIT_TEXT_INLINE Edit online the long text of an object (v)READ_TEXT_INLINE Called before EDIT_TEXT_INLINE to get the long text(vi)LIST_TO_ASCI Stores the report output into an internal table. This can be used to capture a list output and send it via email.(3)Workflow (i)SWE_EVENT_CREATE Create an event from any application or system program(ii)SWE_TEMPLATE F

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide (Tim Grey Guides) By Tim Grey Publisher: Sybex Number Of Pages: 207 Publication Date: 2007-04-16 Sales Rank: 37509 ISBN / ASIN: 0470119195 EAN: 9780470119198 Binding: Paperback Manufacturer: Sybex Studio: Sybex Average Rating: Total Reviews: Book Description: Get the most out of Lightroom with Tim Grey as your guide by reducing the time and effort you spend storing, selecting, and editing your digital images. Adobe’s new Lightroom software, together with this practical guide, explains everything from importing and cataloguing to pr

Every photographer using linux should try to modify some of their pictures to HDR. Let me just explain what HDR means. HDR = High Dynamic Range. This is a lighting procedure designed to emulate the way that light levels in the real world vary over an enormous range. This is mostly achieved by the use of floating point textures and render targets (as well as using the appropriate lighting algorithm); integer formats do not offer the anywhere near the same range of values. Although visually better, the use of floating point formats can result in a large performance impact on some graphics adapters. This explanation can be very confusing. Basically, HDR is set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures (i.e. a large range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. This can n

Adstream has announced the launch of imagebank 2.0. A digital media management tool developed with the input of brand owners and creative agencies. The new-look imagebank showcases a number of updated features including a brand new interface, increased upload capabilities, and functionality that allows users to collate up to 10 images at a time into a user basket for easy bulk download. “We are pleased to announce the release of imagebank 2.0. It combines all the original features of imagebank as well as some very useful additions to provide users with a complete and comprehensive component library right at their fingertips,” Adstream Managing Director Peter Miller said. (more…)

Ask anybody who's had any experience of workflow software what it is and they'd likely give you a different answer to the next person you ask. But I'm fairly certain if they took a look at Windows Workflow they'd probably say it's not what they understand workflow to be about. I'm the same and it's one reason why when I first looked at WF I was a little disappointed. But as time goes on and I play with it more and more I'm realising what a really nice piece of technology it is. In fact I'd say I'm actually very pleased that Microsoft didn't build another workflow system because it very likely wouldn't have met my needs either. There are hundreds of workflow systems out there, all implemented differently from each other and all meeting certain needs and failing to meet other needs. I guess somebody at Microsoft realised this and rather than producing yet another workflow system (YAWFS for short), they wrote a framework for developing any kind of long-running process y

In my last post I talked about validating a XOML workflow. Another way to validate a workflow is to just try and compile it and see what you get back from the compiler. The disadvantage of this approach is the fact you have to start to write things out to file. So I've been validating using the previous method and then just compiling when necessary*. The downside of this approach is the x:Class attribute which can't be present when trying to execute a XOML workflow and must be present when trying to compile it. The simple workaround for this is to add the x:Class attribute before writing the XOML out to a temporary file. Anyway here's the code - // copy to a temporary file and add the x:Class attribute string tempFileName = Path.GetTempPath() + "temp.xoml"; XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument(); doc.LoadXml(xoml); doc.DocumentElement.SetAttribute("Class", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml", WorkflowName

If you're using workflow assemblies, there is no need to validate your workflow since the compilation process has already done this for you. But if you're working with XOML files you'll probably want to validate it at some point before deploying it. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything provided by Windows Workflow just to validate a workflow. The workaround is to start up the runtime and load up your XOML and see what errors you get. You can use something like the following (ripped off and modified from a newsgroup posting) - WorkflowRuntime workflowRuntime = new WorkflowRuntime(); workflowRuntime.StartRuntime(); StringReader stringReader = new StringReader(xomlString); XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(stringReader); try { instance = workflowRuntime.CreateWorkflow(reader); } catch (WorkflowValidationFailedException exp) { StringBuilder errors = new StringBuilder(); foreach (ValidationErro

Over on the FredMiranda forum, a colleague was seeking advice and recommendations on external hard drives. I replied, but I figured it would be a good topic to expand upon here on the blog. Back in the day (I talk about it as if it’s so long ago) when we were shooting film and then [...]

Over on the FredMiranda forum, a colleague was seeking advice and recommendations on external hard drives. I replied, but I figured it would be a good topic to expand upon here on the blog. Back in the day (I talk about it as if it’s so long ago) when we were shooting film and then scanning and retouching on our computer, our concern was more with keeping our negatives in a safe, cool and dry place; the retouched files were easily stored on a CD (or two, or three). These days when our negatives are really the raw files our digital cameras capture; it’s so important to have a reliable, redundant solution to store those files. When you shoot a lot with high resolution cameras, the amount of storage needed could equal gigabytes, or even terabytes of images. Storing your Archives of raw files on CD’s and DVD’s just gets to be too much of a hassle when you are shooting thousands of images a week (consider the time required to burn a 80 GB to DVD’s). Bookmark

Over on the FredMiranda forum, a colleague was seeking advice and recommendations on external hard drives. I replied, but I figured it would be a good topic to expand upon here on the blog. Back in the day (I talk about it as if it’s so long ago) when we were shooting film and then [...]

Windows Workflow is extensible in almost every way. But one thing I didn't realise until seeing this example is that it is possible to implement your own workflow type as well. This looks really interesting. Although the state machine workflow models what I want to do pretty well, I'm not too happy with the UI of the designer so I might have to look into this further.

Last time I talked about adding a property to a custom activity, this time I'll talk about validating the value of that property. So we have a custom activity called UserActivity with a property called Form and we want to ensure the workflow designer has specified a value for this property. First thing to do is write our validator class, which looks like this -  class UserActivityValidator : ActivityValidator { public override ValidationErrorCollection Validate(ValidationManager manager, object obj) { UserActivity activity = (UserActivity)obj; ValidationErrorCollection validationErrorCollection = base.Validate(manager, obj); // Don't validate when the activity is standalone if (activity.Parent == null) { return validationErrorCollection; } // check Form property has been set if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(activity.Form)) validationErrorCollection.Add(ValidationError.GetNotSetValidationError("Form")); retur

I initially thought Windows Workflow was horrendously complicated, needlessly so. I've since realised that it's just exceedingly extensible but one problem is that there aren't a great deal of internet resources to search through to find the answer. No surprise I guess since this is pretty new technology. So I've decided to add some little tidbits. I'll present a few very short posts about a very small subset of the functionality, a kind of Windows Workflow for dummies. Given that I'm a dummy myself, I am perfectly placed to do this I reckon. Of course since I'm still learning all about WF, these posts may be incomplete or plain wrong. So first up, adding a property to a custom activity. Properties in WF don't work like properties in normal .NET classes, they are based around dependency properties, which are properties that can be attached to any class deriving from DependencyObject. All activities inherit from DependencyObject so they can use dependency properties. I

Já pensou em produzir mais, melhor e mais rápido e de quebra ainda deixar o Photoshop fazer a parte chata do trabalho? Se a resposta for sim, está no lugar certo! Mais um post para a seção dicas, dessa vez falarei sobre o software de tratamento e edição de imagens mais famoso do mundo, o Photoshop, mais especificamente sobre Actions. Como se trata de um programa em que é possível fazer milhares de coisas de milhares de jeitos diferentes, esse post vai tratar do conceito geral das Actions, para que após seu entendimento, o leitor consiga “criar” seus próprios métodos de trabalho. Muita gente me pergunta como “fazer qualquer coisa” de maneira automática no Photoshop, geralmente me pedem dicas de como redimensionar várias imagens, aplicar seqüência de filtros, inserir textos, etc., tudo de maneira automática. Action é basicamente o processo de “gravar” tarefas para que depois o Photoshop as refaça de maneira automática. Simples né? Vamos lá, vou explicar

Press Release 5/15/07 Fusion Systems International http://www.FusionSystems.com today announced the release of Fusion Workflow ESP 4.07 for Windows, also available for Mac OS X and Linux. This release of the automated ROOM workflow solution features Fusion Systems’ Dynamic Job Routing, a sophisticated prepress technology for automating workflow. Dynamic Job Routing, together with true-page numbering, post-process scripting, the production of press-accurate, PDF raster proofs, and continued improvements in performance, code optimizations, and control — make this an excellent solution for Windows-centric newspapers, commercial printers, and Digital Press shops seeking to improve ROI through automation. (more…)

Ganz praktisch für den Einstieg in die Workflow-Abbildung auf einer Website mit ASP.NET und WF: "... This starter kit is a Visual Studio 2005 project that demonstrates using Windows Workflow Foundation for simple task-oriented workflow in an ASP.NET Web application. A workflow model is used to automate work order requests at a small example company. It includes three pre-defined roles which each play a part in the work order creation, approval and monitoring. ..." [1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A438A9B9[...]

EFI Launches Fiery-Based Breakthrough Production Workflow Solution to Help Customers Print to Win New Fiery Central Designed to Increase Job Volume, Decrease Turnaround Times and Maximize Equipment Investment for On Demand Print Service Providers London - May 10, 2007 - EFI (Nasdaq: EFII), the world leader in color digital print servers, superwide format printers and inks, and print management solutions, today launched Fiery Central, a powerful, modular, PDF-based production workflow solution. Fiery Central leverages the company’s Fiery digital print server technology used by more than 14 million users worldwide and winner of the 2007 BERTL’s Best Innovation Award. Designed to increase job volume, decrease turnaround times and maximize equipment investment, Fiery Central helps print service providers in medium to high-volume print-on-demand environments, such as commercial printers and corporate reprographic departments (CRD), print to win. (more…)

Great RAW/Workflow Software for your Windows/Mac/Linux systems  Been using Bibble Lab Pro for about a year and a half now and being able to run it in Windows, Mac, and Linux environments is a great boon, since I often have to swap system OS(s). Not having to relearn another interface is awesome and a great time saver. The Bibble Labs interface caches and generates previews, so your browsing of images to cull/edit is greatly sped up, resulting in less time in front of the computer and more time selling and/or shooting. I use this on a Linux and Mac system and find it to be very flexible. The best part? The bibble configuration files are cross-platform, so I can just copy folders between systems and work from where I left off with the previous system. Great software at a great price! http://wingedpower.com/amazon/bibble-pro-4-0-win-mac-linux

The Storage Dilema! So, you've got your ultra-cool and new digital camera that shoots some umpteen megapixels. You've got your awesome digital workflow that creates deltas and non-destructive revisions, allowing you to make as many changes and edits you want. You've got this whiz bang 500GB storage system... that just ran out of space!? What? Hold the phone, 500GB filled up? How!? You've now encountered one of the fun aspects of digital asset management, storage. Look, at 6MP(megapixels), you've got a 10MB-18MB RAW file to work with. If you shot it with Jpeg, you have another 2-8MB of JPEG to go along with that RAW file. Worked with it in an editor and need to save settings? Another 1-8MB for the deltas. Got revisions and copies of the processed images, well, that's another 8-32MB of storage. After all's said and done, for each image you shot, worked on, exported, and saved... you have generated something on the order of 21MB - 66MB of storage. Y

We’re on part three of my three part mini-series on digital photography workflow.  In part one I covered my in-camera workflow, and in part two I covered my organization workflow.  So now that the photos have been captured, stored, and organized, we’re ready to start the editing process. I usually don’t jump right into editing immediately after organizing my photos unless I have a lot of extra time to burn.  When I do have an hour or two for editing, I look to my “Process” label (as I explained in the organization workflow) and pick one that suits my mood.  Some photos I know I’ll be turning black & white, others I know will be in color, but for most of them I have no pre-thought plans.  When I see the untouched photo, though, I start running through all kinds of ideas on what I might do with it in Photoshop. Once I’ve picked a photo for editing, I locate it on the hard drive (easy task with Picasa) to find the RAW file.  Like I ment

This is part two of a three part series on photography workflow.  In part one, I discussed in-camera workflow.  This included everything that I do before and during a shoot to keep myself in check.  Now we’ll look at what I do after the shoot, and how I handle the digital files. When I’m done shooting, I’ll usually go straight to the computer and download all the photos.  I keep my photos on an external hard drive (250GB) dedicated just to photos.  I have a folder for each year on the top level just to help separate things out.  In each of the year folders, I create a new folder for each time I download.  Some people take it a step further and have a folder for each month, but I don’t.  I name the folders using the scheme “MMDD” so everthing stays in chronological order.  After I download the photos, I format the memory card on the camera so it’s ready for the next shoot.  The photos on my hard drive are also backed up through an onli

After reading the Digital Photography School’s article on RAW Workflow: A Pro’s Approach, I thought I would offer up the same insights (though I’m not a pro).  Everybody has a workflow, even if you don’t realize it.  Most of us are habitual creatures, so we do things the same way each time until we make an effort to do them differently.  As you become more experienced with photography, your workflow habits will likely need to change and adapt. I’m sharing my personal workflow habits, so don’t take this as the Gospel.  Every one of you as a photographer has different needs, so take what you want from this and incorporate it into your own workflow.  I’ll break this into three main sections: In-Camera, Organization, and Post-Processing.  I originally wrote it as a single post, but it’s pretty long.  So this post will focus on the in-camera workflow this time. Before I even turn the camera on, there are several things I make sure tha